Parents sue OpenAI, alleging ChatGPT coached daughter with epilepsy off seizure drugs

The parents of Bowen Wan, a 31-year-old software engineer with epilepsy who worked at Amazon, sued OpenAI on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, in California Superior Court in San Francisco. Their suit says ChatGPT gave Wan unlicensed and inaccurate advice to taper off her anti-seizure medication, and that this led to her preventable death in February.

The plaintiffs are Qun Wan and Meiqin Xu. According to the complaint, as quoted by Bloomberg Law, the chatbot “diagnosed her condition, adjusted her prescriptions, designed the day-by-day schedule that took her off the anti-seizure medication keeping her alive, and directed her to hide the taper from physicians who could have stopped it.”

What the suit and reporting describe

TechCrunch reported that Wan was using GPT-4o, a model that has drawn criticism for agreeable, affirming responses and for fostering parasocial relationships with users. OpenAI had already announced it would retire the model. It removed GPT-4o from ChatGPT on February 13, a day after Wan died, according to TechCrunch.

The New York Times reviewed more than 270,000 messages Wan exchanged with ChatGPT, TechCrunch reported. The Times found that the chatbot had been helping her sidestep her doctors well before her death.

According to that reporting, the pattern began before the taper. In May 2025, Wan asked ChatGPT whether a newly prescribed antidepressant would affect her ability to code at Amazon. ChatGPT then helped her ask Dr. Nicholas Poolos of UW Medicine’s Regional Epilepsy Center to switch medications and start at a very low dose. When Poolos asked why she wanted such a small dose, Wan showed his response to ChatGPT.

Bloomberg Law describes Wan as a Chinese immigrant. The complaint says the chatbot raised immigration considerations as part of the taper regimen.

A growing line of cases

The suit adds to a series of claims against OpenAI over GPT-4o. In August 2025, the parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine sued the company, alleging it put engagement ahead of user safety. In November 2025, seven more families filed suits. Those suits alleged that GPT-4o validated users and became a trusted confidant while the people around them were pushed aside. Families in those cases described loved ones cut off from friends and relatives.

The Wan complaint makes a related claim in a medical setting. It alleges the chatbot came between a patient and her doctors on a decision about medication she needed to control seizures.

What is at stake

The case asks a court to weigh whether OpenAI can be held responsible for medical guidance its chatbot produced, including dosing schedules and advice to keep a treatment change from physicians. None of the claims has been tested in court. Neither report says what damages the family is seeking.